Two Roads Diverged
by DragongirlM
Summary: Nyrrah and Rahs are best friends who plan to someday become Jedi. All that changes, however, when the two are ripped away from each other to walk very different paths.
1. The Sacking

**So one day I was playing SW:tOR when the inspiration fairy struck. Enjoy the fruit of much writing and a little research.**

**And yeah, I know Jedi aren't allowed to have children, but come on! It must happen occasionally...besides, Nyrrah's mom is a member of the Luka Sene, and they don't care! :P**

_A young Miraluka races through the Jedi Temple, booted feet pounding on the cool stone floor. Her pale blond hair flows out behind her, a few strands caught in the white cloth bound around her face and below her eyebrows. The girl, Nyrrah, darts past Masters and Padawans alike, calling apologies behind her over trodden-on toes or jabbed sides. Running just ahead of her is a Zabrak girl her own age, golden eyes laughing over her shoulder. "Come on, Nee!" she taunts, "you're slower than a drunk bantha!"_

"_Why did I ever become friends with you, Rahs?" Nyrrah yelps._

"_I'm that much fun! Now hurry up!"_

_Nyrrah speeds up and chances a glance over her shoulder. Hot on her heels is a furious-looking, red-haired Zabrak Padawan, Zulia. Rahs had decided it would be a truly excellent, intelligent, and well-thought-out idea to steal Zulia's favorite horn decorations. Now, Nyrrah isn't so sure._

_Rahs leads her around a corner, up a flight of stairs, and into an alcove, where the two girls collapse, panting. They hear Zulia racing after them, but they are well-hidden and she passes them by. "Wow," Rahs gasps, "for an almost-Jedi, she can sure get angry! I swear she turned about five different colors!"_

_Nyrrah can't help herself; she bursts out laughing, and soon the two girls are rolling on the ground in a fit of giggles. Rahs recovers first and places her stolen silver rings over her own stubby horns. They hang loosely on the tiny little points, the chains dangling over Rahs' eyes. The nine-year-old poses and inquires, "How do I look?"_

_She looks so absolutely ridiculous that Nyrrah starts laughing again. She and Rahs don't notice they have company until a strong hand rests on each girl's shoulder. The owner of the hands, a Miraluka Jedi wearing a bone mask and a smile, leans his head down between the two girls. "I think you made Zulia angry, you two. That wasn't nice; you should apologize."_

_Nyrrah stares at the ground, looking guilty, but Rahs pouts. "She shouldn't have chased us! We poor little children might be scarred from the experience of a big, scary lady chasing us all over the Temple."_

_Her cheek gets her a jab in the ribs from Nyrrah, but the man only gives her an admonishing look and replies, "At least return what you stole. This is the second time this week you've taken something that wasn't yours. That just earned you another hour of meditation later."_

_Rahs sighs. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry, Master Varian. I'll give it back."_

"_It won't happen again, Dad," Nyrrah adds, giving Rahs a stern look. Her friend sticks out her tongue at her._

_Looking satisfied, Nyrrah's father stands up and strides away. Rahs scowls at Nyrrah. "Don't give me that look, you helped me take it."_

"_You pressured me into it!"_

"_I know you secretly loved every minute."_

_Nyrrah just crosses her arms in a huff. The two sit in silence for a moment until Rahs smiles and lightly punches Nyrrah in the shoulder, saying, "Aw, lighten up, Nee! I promise I won't steal anything ever again!"_

"_That's what you said the last three times."_

"_I really mean it this time."_

"_You said that, too."_

"_Whatever."_

_It is then that they notice the many curious Padawans leaning their heads over the rail of the walkway, murmuring amongst themselves. Rahs and Nyrrah look at each other, both nine-year-olds fully aware of what the other is thinking. The two promptly link arms and skip back down the stairs._

_Peering around a corner, the girls are just in time to see two strangers enter the Temple. One is an attractive, blue-skinned Twi'lek with a pair of blasters at her hip. The other is a tall man wearing a long black cloak. A group of Jedi step forward to confront the newcomers. Rahs grabs Nyrrah and tries to drag her towards them, but Nyrrah yanks away. "Are you crazy?" she hisses, "Whoever they are, we can't just run up to them! And…well, I have a bad feeling about this."_

_Rahs rolls her eyes impatiently but remains where she is. Nyrrah is uncertain and scared. With her Force sight, she sees darkness radiating from the tall man, and it frightens her. So fixated on the newcomers is the girl, she hardly notices Rahs tugging on her arm. "What is it?" she snaps._

_Rahs frowns, gazing towards the Temple entrance. Her forehead furrows uncertainly before she points and murmurs, "Nee...is that...a shuttle?"  
Nyrrah whirls around just as a resounding crash sounds through the building. A shuttle smashes through the stone wall of the Temple, tearing through pillars and skidding across the floor, leaving metal and fire in its wake. Nyrrah's ears sting and ache at the terrible noise, and she and Rahs both know neither of them can get away in time from the enormous hunk of metal barreling towards them. It is a mere few yards away when something drops from the balcony above and grabs the girls, pinning them against the wall. Nyrrah can see over the arm held tightly around her, and she watches the shuttle pass only a few feet away, skidding over the spot where she and Rahs had been standing. When the dust clears, Nyrrah and Rahs see that their savior is Nyrrah's father. He releases the two girls and holds them at arm's length. "Are you girls alright? Are you hurt?" _

_The two manage to shake their heads. Nyrrah is too terrified to move, but Rahs pulls away to peer at the shuttle, which has come to rest behind the two strangers._

_The wrecked, burning craft's doors open. Nyrrah hears the sound of a lightsaber being drawn and looks up to see one clutched in the gauntleted hand of a man standing in the shuttle. Behind him, out of the darkness, more sabers flash out like long, sinister beacons. The Jedi standing behind Nyrrah unsheathe their lightsabers as well, a wave of cool blue and green to counter the angry red. The girl stares. Behind her, she dimly hears her father murmur something like, "No..."  
For a moment, the world stops moving._

_Then, with a battle cry that shakes the foundations of the Temple itself, the Jedi and Sith charge each other. Nyrrah's father turns to her. "You girls," he says urgently, "Run! Get out of here! You can't stay!" when Nyrrah hesitates, he says, "Don't worry, I'll be right behind you."  
His daughter swallows, grabs Rahs, and runs, their flight a rather ironic reverse of their most recent and joyous run not long before. Nyrrah hears sabers clashing and people screaming behind her as she flees like a startled bird, dragging the Zabrak behind her. She stops and presses herself against the Temple's back wall, breathing hard. The once-peaceful area has exploded into utter chaos; sabers sing, people scream, and flames lick up the pillars near the entrance. A Jedi Knight is thrown against the wall a few feet away from Rahs. He falls to the floor with a dull thump and does not rise. A few yards away, a Padawan battles a Sith lord. He cuts her down easily and turns to another victim, a boy of about fifteen. Rahs covers her mouth, feeling ill. What is this? How can this be happening?_

_Nyrrah tugs on her arm and points down a nearby hallway. "Over here!" she shouts. _

_The girls race through the twisting passageway, skid around a sharp corner, duck into a room-and come face-to-face with two Sith. Nyrrah sucks in a noisy breath and shies away. They are both male humans who tower above her, two monstrous things that radiate terrible darkness. Their very presence makes Nyrrah want to curl into a ball and hide. Rahs trembles beside her as the Sith leer and point their sabers at the girls. Breathing hard, heart pounding, shaking uncontrollably, Nyrrah backs away from them- and feels something grab her from behind. Another pair of arms grab Rahs. With a scream, she twists away, but her assailant's grip is too strong. The Sith that holds Rahs begins dragging her away down the hall. The girl screams and kicks and bites, but she can't manage to free herself, but as Nyrrah fights her own captor, the Miraluka manages to get an arm free. She extends her hand, which is now wreathed in gold light, and Force-throws a vase perched on the other side if the room behind her. It shatters against the wall, but the distraction causes her captor to loosen its grip, allowing the nine-year-old to twist away and race down another hall. She can hear them close behind her. Her legs burn, her chest aches, her breath comes in ragged gasps, but still she chases after her friend. The Sith drags Rahs into the chaos of the main hall. Nyrrah keeps running, but she is tired, and she can't close the distance between she and Rahs quickly enough. A Jedi, chasing after a Sith, springs between Nyrrah and her quarry, forcing her to duck and roll away to escape. When she stands back up, Rahs is gone. "RAHS!" Nyrrah screams through the sound of battle, but she gets not reply. Suddenly, she hears the drone of a lightsaber behind her. Instinctively, she hits the floor and feels a slight warmth on the top of her hair as the glowing blade passes a hairsbreadth away from her head. Scrambling to her feet, Nyrrah runs in blind panic down another passage and up a flight of stairs. _

_She nearly collides with a wall before she realizes she's hit a dead end.  
She looks to her right and sees a door with a keypad beside it. She bangs on the door and types a few random numbers into the keypad in her desperation, but nothing works. With a moan of terror, she whirls to see her pursuers turn the corner. Two are the Sith she and Rahs had run into, the third is a female Sith pureblood. Her eyes gleam menacingly as she stalks toward her prey, the shaking ten-year-old at the end of a hall. As they approach, Nyrrah uses the Force to fling any object within ten feet at her pursuers, but her missiles are very few, and what she can find glances harmlessly off of the female Sith's lightsaber. In a moment, the pureblood closes the distance between herself and the trembling Miraluka. As if in a dream, Nyrrah watches the lightsaber descend. Her hands rise, seemingly of their accord, as if to stop the deadly blow. But as they lift, the air seems to ripple and rise with them. Before Nyrrah knows it, the strike that would have split her skull glances harmlessly off of the invisible Force shield the girl had suddenly erected.  
Hissing in frustration, the pureblood strikes the shield again and again, and it holds under the assault until her concentration breaks. The Sith swings her lightsaber in a deadly arc, and while Nyrrah tries to turn away from the blow, it pierces her flesh above her right eyebrow and slices downwards. Nyrrah screams and falls back, clutching her bleeding face. The Sith lifts her weapon again, but before she can bring it back down, one of the men behind her lets out a cry that quickly cuts off into a gurgle. Nyrrah lifts her head to see her father quickly dispatching the other man. "Nyrrah! Run!" he shouts before turning to the female pureblood.  
His daughter obeys, racing back up the hall in blind panic. The front of the Temple is crawling with Sith, so Nyrrah leaps into the nearest rubble-made alcove big enough to hold her and curls into a ball, shaking uncontrollably.  
The battle in the Jedi Temple, the start of the event later called the Sacking of Coruscant, lasts barely over a scant minute or more, but to Nyrrah it is a short eternity. When the sounds of battle from outside die down and eventually cease, Nyrrah still remains where she is, crammed into a tiny space, too terrified to move. Dimly, she hears explosions outside. The only thing she can think about is Rahs._

They took her...she's probably dead...

_Eventually, the adrenaline pumping through her veins begins to fade, and the resulting fatigue sends her into a deep, dreamless sleep._

_~o~_

_When Nyrrah wakes, it takes her a moment to remember where she is. Then, it all comes rushing back. The shuttle. The Sith. Her father._

_Rahs._

_Nyrrah remains under the pile of rubble, feeling miserable._ I am free and alive, while my best friend in the whole galaxy is dead or worse.

_This wasn't supposed to happen! It couldn't have happened. Why was this happening?_

_After a minute or so of lying in her dark little corner, Nyrrah tries to compose herself. She strains her ears, hoping. _Maybe the Sith are all gone? Maybe someone is looking for survivors?

_All is silent as the grave outside her hole, so she warily climbs out.  
What was once the Jedi Temple now lies in smoking ruins, littered with the bodies of the dead and dying. Pillars are toppled, chunks of stone and metal litter the floor, and the floor is slick with blood. Worst of all, a few remaining Sith stalk through the rubble, killing off the survivors. Sickened and afraid, Nyrrah slides back into her cubby. She looks back to the hall she came from, the hall where she left her father and the female Sith.  
She can't see her father anywhere.  
Nyrrah hasn't seen the female Sith, however, so she allows herself to hope. Very carefully and as quietly as possible, she wriggles out of her hiding place and ducks behind a pillar. Sticking to the shadows, she makes a run for it, speeding down the hall. Thankfully, it is deserted. Nyrrah slows down and continues cautiously forward.  
She finds her father lying in the place where he saved her life beside the bodies of the two male Sith._

_There is no sign of the female pureblood. For a moment, Nyrrah stares, paralyzed in shock. Then, with a cry, she darts forward and falls to her knees beside him, taking his hand. It is cold. She stares in disbelief at his prone form, shaking hard enough to hear her teeth clack together. This isn't happening. This isn't happening.  
_ I'm going to wake up, and this will all be a dream._  
But she doesn't wake up, and neither does he. She doesn't bother to pinch herself. She cannot cry. She can only sit and clutch his hand to her chest to keep from shattering._

_After a long, long time, Nyrrah lifts her head. Not letting go of her father's hand, she crawls to his other side and touches his belt. It is empty.  
_ They took his lightsaber,_ she thinks numbly.  
Slowly, Nyrrah lets out the breath she didn't realize she was holding. Her left hand still clutches his tightly. Her right reaches down behind his head and pulls the mask from around his face, fumbling with the simple clasp. Numbly, she lifts the piece of bone and clutches it tightly, remembering what she had heard the Masters repeating over and over like a magic spell._

There is no death. There is the Force.

_She lets her father's hand drop._

_Slowly, she rises. Clutching his mask to her chest and mouthing the words of the code to herself, Nyrrah slowly walks away._

_~o~_

Nyrrah stood perfectly still in the center of the ruined Jedi Temple. The vast place was utterly silent, as though time itself held its breath and moved on out of respect. Once-mighty pillars lay in ruins around her feet, and piles of stone littered the ground. Nyrrah didn't have to turn around to see the gaping hole, like an open wound, in the Temple doors. Yet, despite the utter destruction, the place Nyrrah once called home is still recognizable. "It's been eleven years, and nothing's changed," she murmured.

_That hall is where I, no more than four years old, stood and spun around and around when I first came here, trying to see everything at once. Down that passage is where I nearly chopped my own arm off trying to wield a practice blade. That door leads to a room that Padawan Vace told me was haunted with evil Force apparitions that devoured little girls. And that flight of stairs is where Rahs and I-_

_Rahs._

Nyrrah was pulled out of her melancholy reverie by her companion, Qyzen Fess. The Trandoshan shifted uncomfortably behind her._ "Herald," _he growled, _"Shall we go?"_

Nyrrah turned her head slightly. "Yes, Qyzen," she murmured, "just...give me a moment."

The Jedi looked around one last time at the achingly familiar walls and floor. Her eye fell on a flight of stairs, and yes, if she gazed at a certain place on the wrecked balcony above, she could almost picture two little girls, happy and carefree, crouched in a corner and out of sight of any angry pursuers.

With a heavy sigh, Nyrrah turned around and continued through the Temple.


	2. Interrogation

**Happy international Star Wars day, my friends, and may the fourth be with you! (Hurhurhur.) My dad stole the laptop, to my eternal outrage, and now I cannot play SW:TOR! *shakes fist angrily* So, instead, I am celebrating with a new chapter. Enjoy!**

_The first thing Rahs sees when she opens her eyes is darkness. Her hands are bound in front of her, and her head is spinning. She tries to twist her hands free, but her manacles rub painfully against her wrists, so she stops. She lets her eyes adjust before carefully sitting up and looking around._

_She is in a small room with little in it but a few crates, an empty datapad, and her disoriented self. Other than the fact that there is a single door, the walls are bare, and the Zabrak still can't guess at where she is. The room is slightly stuffy, and all Rahs cares about is getting out somehow, but she finds that her feet are tied, and the door doesn't have a handle on it anyway._

Nee would know how to get out. Maybe they got her too?

_Rahs looks around, but she is alone. Hope dies in her chest. She recalls Nyrrah running after her, screaming her name. _Did they kill her? Or did they capture her, too? What if they're doing terrible things to her? What if-

_The door opens, flooding the room with cold light and interrupting Rahs' thoughts. As she blinks in the sudden brightness, three Imperial soldiers enter the room and head straight for her. Rahs shrinks away from them, but two of them grab her upper arms and begin to drag her towards the door, and although she wriggles and yelps, their grip is too strong to break. Rahs is beginning to panic, and the resulting burst of emotion from her causes her manacles to explode and makes three nearby crates leap into the air of their own accord and brain her captors. Their grip loosens, allowing the girl to twist away and break for the door._

_Rahs hears shouts of anger and alarm behind her, but still she runs down a hall, through a set of doors, past two more guards—and smacks into someone. The girl is knocked to the ground, but she pushes herself upright and scrambles backwards and away from the man before her. He is dressed in heavy robes and displays a lightsaber at his hip. He is a pureblood with small, tentacle-like growths adorned with many gold decorations on his face. He radiates power and darkness that makes Rahs cringe. Paralyzed with fear, she barely hears the guards catch up to her._

_The men skid to a halt and bow respectfully before the tall man. "M-my lord," one of them stammers, but before he can go on, the Sith speaks. _

_"My Master would be very displeased if he knew she escaped," he says, his voice deadly calm, "how did you let this happen?"_

_The guard wets his lips nervously. "She—she lifted a box and threw it, my lord. With t-the Force."_

_The Sith gazes silently at the Imperial before finally replying. "If that was all it takes to escape from you then perhaps you are not fit for your post," he sneers._

_With that, the pureblood carelessly extends a hand. The guard behind Rahs chokes and gasps, clawing at the invisible pressure around his throat. Rahs watches in silent horror as the unfortunate man's face turns blue, a blood vessel pops behind his eye, and he finally stops struggling and goes limp. Rahs has never seen the Force used in such a cruel way before. The Sith drops the man unceremoniously to the floor and turns to the shaking girl at his feet._

"_You," he says to the remaining two, rather cowed, guards, "take her back and prepare her."_

_The men grab Rahs, who is still too traumatized to struggle, and drag her into a different room, where they bind her firmly to a chair. Then they leave. Rahs waits for a short eternity until the Sith enters. He paces intimidatingly before her for a few moments before he speaks._

"_You are from the Temple." It is a simple statement of fact. "How long did you live there?"_

_Rahs, still trembling, does not reply. The Sith gazes at her for a moment before he speaks again. "I hope you did not grow too fond of the place," he smirks, putting his red face uncomfortably close to hers, "for it now lies in ruins, struck down by the might of the Empire! Every structure within and without lies shattered; every person inside has been destroyed! Save you, of course..." he smiles and leans even closer, so that Rahs can feel his hot breath on her face. "What do you think of that, hmm?"_

_Rahs has recovered enough to spit in his face._

_The pureblood curses and reels back, wiping his face furiously. Enraged, he turns his now even redder face to the defiant Zabrak. "You will pay for that, bitch!" he snarls._

_The Sith's sticks his arms out in front of him, his fingertips alight with purple lightning._

_The next thing Rahs knows is agony._

_Pain explodes behind her eyes and over every nerve, scraping her skin with hungry teeth and licking up over her chest and legs. Every hair on her body stands up straight as thousands of volts of electricity shoot through her body. She stiffens, her back arches, and an anguished scream claws its way up her throat and explodes on her lips. White-and-violet lighting ripples over her skin and through her very core. It only lasts a few moments, but the pain lasts far longer. Rahs slumps in the chair with a sob, twitching slightly._

_The Sith walks slowly towards the shuddering Zabrak girl, red eyes glowing with hatred. "Normally," he hisses, "you would be long dead. But, unfortunately, my master believes that a Force-sensitive child would _benefit_ the Empire somehow...even one as pathetic as yourself," he adds with a look of contempt._

_Rahs lifts her head weakly to look into his crimson gaze and finds no mercy there. "Now," her assailant says quietly,_ _"I was told to see exactly how powerful you are. While I _do _have several different options to test this, most of them involve untying you, and I must admit I'm rather disinclined to do that. So…" he stops to smirk menacingly down at her. "I suppose I'll have to use a more…_drastic _method."_

_With that, he extends his hands and shocks her again. Rahs clamps her teeth over her scream, and it comes out as a strangled yelp. She refuses to give him the satisfaction of hearing her pain. "I'll keep it up until you can fight back," her torturer sneers._

"_Why?" Rahs gasps, "I can't!"_

_The pureblood shrugs. "Too bad," he replies._

_~o~_

_After five endless hours, Rahs slumps, barely conscious, in her seat. After growing bored of using Force lighting on her, the Sith had choked, burned, and, in his frustration at her defenselessness and inability to return an attack, beaten her. The Sith lifts his hands a final time and points those deadly fingers at Rahs. The sight of her oncoming destruction registers in the child's pain-dulled mind, but the silent threat has little effect. Part of her is ready to simply give in and die._

_But part of her is not so ready._

_Rahs' head snaps up as adrenaline-fueled instinct takes over. Her right hand lights up and, grasping her chains, crushes them like dry leaves. Her eyes glow with an eerie light as she extends her hand, and a blast of electricity flies from her fingertips and attacks her assailant before he can draw his lightsaber. Part of Rahs is still absolutely terrified, but another side, the bit of her now in control, relishes the Sith's cry of pain. When the pale stream ends, Rahs gapes at her hand, then at the pureblood. The man staggers, shaking his head. Many emotions flash across his face—pain, shock, anger—but are quickly replaced with a broad grin. He opens the door and motions two Imperial soldiers, who have likely been standing outside the entire time, inside the room. They bow and stare at any point except the Sith's face, but he doesn't seem to care. "You two," he says excitedly, "I have done it!"_

"_Um, congratulations, my lord..." one of them murmurs, "what should we do with her now?"_

_The pureblood's grin widens. "Stabilize her, and then bring in Nocena. She can finish with the prisoner." _

_He keeps talking, but Rahs barely hears as she finally slips into warm, welcoming darkness. _


End file.
